e Congress of the Confederation was
left without money and almost without authority.

This state of affairs soon grew intolerable. "We are," said Washington,
"one nation to-day, and thirteen to-morrow." Such a union it was
impossible to maintain. It was evident that the compact must give way;
that there must be one strong government or thirteen weak ones. This
last alternative frightened the States. None of them was strong enough
to hold its own against foreign governments. They must form a strong
union or leave themselves at the mercy of ambitious foes. It was this
state of affairs that led to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, by
whose wisdom the National Union which has proved so solid a bond was
organized. The Constitution made by this body gave rise to the Republic
of the United States. A subsequent act, which in 1898 added a number of
distant island possessions to our Union, and vastly widened its
interests and its importance in the world's councils, made of it a
"Greater Republic," a mighty dominion whose possessions extended half
round the globe.

While the changes here briefly outlined were taking place, the country
was growing with phenomenal rapidity. From all parts of northern and
western Europe, and above all from Great Britain, new settlers were
crowding to our shores, while the descendants of the original settlers
were increasing in numbers. How many people there were here is in doubt,
but it is thought that in 1700 there were more than 200,000, in 1750
about 1,100,000, and in 1776 about 2,500,000. The first census, taken in
1790, just after the Federal Union was formed, gave a population of
nearly 4,000,000.

A people growing at this rate could not be long confined to the narrow
ocean border of the early settlements. A rich and fertile country lay
back, extending how far no one knew, and soon there was a movement to
the West, which carried the people over the mountains and into the broad
plains beyond. A war was fought with France for the possession of the
Ohio country. Boone and other bold pioneers led hardy settlers into
Kentucky and Tennessee, and George Rogers Clark descended the Ohio and
drove the British troops from the northwest territory, gaining that vast
region for the new Union.

After the War for Independence the movement westward went on with
rapidity. The first settlement in Ohio was made at Marietta in 1788;
Cincinnati was founded in 1790; in 1803 St. Louis was a little village
of